COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho – As the 2019 Great Northwest Athletic Conference Women's Golf Championships approach, Montana State University Billings will enter next week's event at the Coeur d'Alene Resort Golf Club with optimism and excitement.
 
For the first time ever, the winner of the GNAC Championships will earn a spot in the NCAA D2 West Region Championships, by virtue of an automatic bid. The Yellowjackets have performed well historically at the event, finishing as the runners up in both 2014 and 2015. Last spring, the 'Jackets took fourth place. "This is an exciting opportunity for our women's team," said MSUB head coach Jeff Allen. "They won an event in the fall at Saint Martin's against these teams, so we know that they can do it."
 
First-round action starts at 9:20 a.m. Pacific/10:20 a.m. Mountain time Monday morning on the par-71, 5,914-yard course layout. The women's two-round event will feature Round 1 on Monday and Round 2 on Tuesday. Live scoring will be available online through Golf Stat here.
 
View a hole-by-hole map of the Coeur d'Alene Resort online here.
 
The highlight of the 2018-19 season for MSUB thus far was a team victory at the Saint Martin's University Invitational on October 5-6 in Olympia, Washington. The Yellowjackets shot a two-round score of 640 (329-311), and defeated four of their five GNAC opponents that they will see this week at the conference event.
 
Senior Shealyn Hafer, who has led MSUB all season long, had one of her best-ever finishes at the SMU Invite as she took second place with a two-round score of 156 (79-77). On the year, Hafer ranks No. 9 in the GNAC with a scoring average of 79.6 strokes per round. She has competed in all 18 rounds, with five top-10 finishes and a pair of top-five finishes on the season.
 
Hafer has twice reached her collegiate single-round best of 73, achieved most recently on April 5 at the Western New Mexico University Mustang Invitational. She also had a collegiate-best two-round score of 151 at the event, and that earned the Butte native her second GNAC Player of the Week award this spring.
 
Hafer will be playing the GNAC Championships course for the third time in her career, and it has been one of her best tracks as a collegiate player. As a sophomore in 2017 Hafer tied for 12th at the event, posting a two-round score of 161 (83-78). Last season she tied for fourth place, with a two-round score of 153 (75-78) to finish as MSUB's top player.
 
Hafer will tee off at 10:04 Monday morning, and she is grouped with fellow fourth-year senior Stephanie Miller of Northwest Nazarene University, and TiAnna Ford of Saint Martin's University. Miller is one of only two players among the tournament field – along with Western Washington University's Hannah Drake – to be playing the course for a fourth time.
   

SHEALYN HAFER - SENIOR	YEAR	R1	R2	TOTAL	PLACE
2018 GNAC CHAMPIONSHIPS	Junior	75	78	153	T4
2017 GNAC CHAMPIONSHIPS	Sophomore	83	78	161	T12

MSUB's other senior, Sarah Schroefel, also returns to the CDA Resort course after competing there as a junior for MSUB in 2018. Schroefel will tee off at 9:42 a.m., and is paired with Trinity McCarthy of NNU and Katherine Swor of SMU. Last spring, Schroefel shot a two-round score of 168 (84-84) on the championship course.
 
Schroefel enters this week's event with a scoring average of 84.8 strokes per round during the 2018-19 season. She has played in all 18 rounds, and has notched a pair of top-10 finishes. Her best two-round score of the year was a 159 (81-78) at the Rocky Mountain College Battlin' Bear Invitational on October 1-2 at Peter Yegen Golf Club in Billings. Her individual round season low was a 75 at the Winona State University Warrior Invitational on March 12, which led her to a tie for eighth place among the field of 47 competitors.
   

SARAH SCHROEFEL - SENIOR	YEAR	R1	R2	TOTAL	PLACE
2018 GNAC CHAMPIONSHIPS	Junior	84	84	168	T23

 
"We have some great senior leadership with Shealyn and Sarah, and I am looking forward to a great showing from them," Allen said. "This is a team with a lot of talent. We will spend the next few days preparing, and get ready to play our best Monday and Tuesday."
 
MSUB's third player with experience on the championship course is sophomore Renae Heisler, who will tee off at 9:53 a.m. Monday. Heisler will play with Taylor Entenman of NNU and Maddie Prigge of SMU. The Great Falls native has had a steady spring season for MSUB, ranking second on the squad behind Hafer with a scoring average of 81.6 strokes per round.
 
Heisler has played in all 18 of MSUB's rounds, and has a pair of top-10 finishes including a top-five finish. Heisler is coming off her best career performance to date, as she shot a 153 at the Mustang Invitational including a collegiate-low single-round score of 74 in the second round.
 
Last spring in her first time at the CDA Resort course, Heisler carded a two-round score of 169 (83-86) and tied for 25th place.
   

RENAE HEISLER - SOPHOMORE	YEAR	R1	R2	TOTAL	PLACE
2018 GNAC CHAMPIONSHIPS	Freshman	83	86	169	T25

 
A pair of true freshmen will fill out MSUB's top-five at next week's event, as Tierney Messmer and Kinsey Irvin look to cap off their strong debut seasons with a sound performance.
 
Irvin will play in the fourth position for MSUB, teeing off at 9:31 a.m. along with Ragan McGilvery of NNU and Michaela Morris of SMU. Irvin is fourth on the team with a scoring average of 83.2 strokes per round, and has played in all 18 rounds on the year.
 
Her best performance so far was a fourth-place finish at the Saint Martin's University Invitational, as she posted a two-round total of 159 (77-82). Both the two-round score and her single-round 77 matched her personal best on the year, and overall she has a pair of top-10 finishes.
 
Messmer is third on the team with an average of 81.8 strokes per round, and she has played in 16 of 18 rounds in her first year with the 'Jackets. Messmer has finished in the top-10 five times and in the top-five twice, and her season-low single-round score of 74 came at the Battlin' Bear Invitational in the fall.
 
Messmer got her collegiate career started with a bang, tying for third place in her very first tournament with a 157 (79-78) at the Yellowjacket Fall Invitational on September 10-11 at Lake Hills Golf Club in Billings. That stands as her best two-round score to date, and she had a fifth-place finish at the Saint Martin's Invitational.
 
Western Washington University is the team to beat heading into the conference tournament, as the Vikings hold a 309.9 stroke average which is 3.1 strokes better than second-place and reigning tournament champion Concordia University. WWU's Lacy Sheldon is the top individual with an average of 76.5 strokes per round. The Cavaliers' Cammie Decker was the highest finisher last year among this year's returners, as she took second place with a 150 (77-73) to help CU to its first-ever GNAC title in golf.
 
MSUB shot a two-round score of 645 (322-323) during the 2018 championship, finishing just one stroke behind WWU for fourth place.

MSUB Team History at Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships (Best marks in Bold)